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tv   Americas Newsroom  FOX News  January 8, 2013 6:00am-8:00am PST

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to make. call the hartford at: today to request your free quote for the aarp auto insurance program from the hartford. we'll even send you this free calculator. that's: >> gretchen: coming up this saturday night, the miss america pageant. check it out and if you would like to help support scholarship aspect of that program, fast fitness dvd for women on the run, for every dvd sold, one dollar goes to the miss america scholarship fund, largest scholarship program in the world for women. go to deal with your body fast.com or amazon.com or missperk.org. the ladies are the models from deal or no deal, that game show. now they're partnering up with miss america. >> steve: look like a queen. >> gretchen: be in shape if you're on the run. log on to our after the show show. have a great day, everyone.
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>> brian: bye. >> steve: see you tomorrow bill: let's get it rolling. fox news alert. dire new warnings about the nation's financial health. set your calendar. a new report shows we have just about a month before our national credit card limit is officially, maed out. despite all the numbers on the screen maxed out. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom.". martha: feels like ground hog day? i do. by partisan policy center they say the u.s. will smack its head on the debt ceiling, as early as february 15th, five weeks or so from now unless congress raises the amount of money we're allowed to borrow. bill: what are the resolutions? stuart varney, host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. good morning, sir. give us the facts on the story. >> deja vu all over again. it is a new cliff. groundhog day all over again.
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this is debt ceiling cliff and approaching much faster than we previously thought, specifically around february 15th. the government can not borrow anymore money. the treasury is moving money around to make sure it can pay its bills. it runs out of the ability to pay all the bills right around february 15th according to this bipartisan group. at that point we run out of money and the government has to start prioritizing who it will pay and who it will not pay. bill: some in washington argue it is a head fake. it is a kind of a sexy headline. the u.s. government takes in tax receipts and that money will pay its bills. >> that's right. it is not true to say america defaults on february 15th or whatever the date is because tax money is still coming in. when the government has to do when the cliff arrives is decide who gets paid and who does not. they have to pay the interest on the debt. have to pay out
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social security but will they pay federal workers salaries? maybe they won't. that is prioritizing the money coming in and prioritizing where it goes on the way out. bill: we have a calendar to watch here. >> yep. bill: how do you think this is resolved? >> at the moment i said it's a new cliff, here it comes all over again and just like the last fiscal cliff the two sides are miles apart on principle. at this point, bill, it is almost impossible to see what the resolution will be. there will be a resolution but how it comes down, no clue. bill: the president said he won't compromise on this. congress has to pay the bills based on law it passed. house republicans might have new ideas on that one. stuart varney, thank you, 9:20, fbn. see you, stuart. martha. martha: if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, democrats suggest ad very interesting alternative the president could take into consideration, he could just mint a couple trillion
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dollar coins. the idea was floated by an analyst at washington research group. democrats like jerrold nadler says this is a great idea. there is a legal loophole that allows the treasury to print platinum coins of any denomination the president likes. republicans say no way. they are already introducing a bill to make sure it doesn't happen. seriously? give me a break. bill: they would be quite valuable. martha: really. bill: maybe not. martha: maybe not. bill: on the topic of money, president obama is settling on the new pick for treasury secretary. he might announce it sometime this week. jack lew would replace timothy geithner if confirmed. prior to this role he was the direct are to you of office of management and budget. before that lew was the first deputy secretary of state and management resources. martha: washington is still reeling from the president's nomination of chuck hagel as the next secretary of defense. new hampshire senator kelly
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ayotte, one of a chorus of critics slamming the former nebraska senator. she says this. while i deeply respect senator hagel's service in vietnam i'm concerned by several boxes he took as senator, longstanding opposition to increase iran sanctions and his regarding hezbollah and hamas as well as our close al eye israel. senator hagel has one big fan, he has a lot of fans. this one is raising eyebrows the rogue nation of iran. a foreign ministry spokesman calls the nomination, a sign of quote, practical change to american foreign policy. he predicts that if hague bell is appointed relations between the united states and iran will improve. israel is striking a different tone. they say they're quote worried about the nomination. a lot more coming up. bill: certainly do. meantime fox news alert now. developments into the investigation into the attack on the consulate in
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libya. we're learning a suspect in custody, the only suspect has been released by authorities due to a lack of evidence. greg palkot watches that. he is live in london. who is this man, greg? >> reporter: bill, he is a tunisian man. he goes by the name of al-harzi. he was originally arrested in turkey in october. he had been in libya at the time of the attack on the consulate in benghazi. at the time authorities said he was strongly suspected of involvement. he might have been a witness. fox news reporting that he was bragging about it on the phone or social media. we were in the region. we even heard rumors about him being connected with al qaeda. he was extradited to tunisia and questioned by authorities. after some resistance in december, for several hours it is reported by the fbi. we have no word what came out of that. his lawyer all along denied involvement. said his client was only in libya on a construction job. so overnight he was conditionally released by
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authorities in tunisia. they say for lack of evidence. he is still suspected however, of possible involvement in a terror organization, bill. bill: where does that leave the u.s. now on this investigation? anywhere? >> reporter: well, by all accounts, bill, it really does not look too much advanced since we were last in benghazi in october. one report says it is totally stalled. another report says the probe has not resulted in a single person being charged. at that time time we were talking a few dozen people being questioned but apparently what we saw in benghazi is still the situation there now. security is a problem. militias are strong. attacks on the security forces supposed to be investigating this attack on the consulate seems to be more the norm. there was one arrest, one person being held in relation to a possible terror group in key owe, egypt. the latest accounts we're getting about that this person is still being held and still being questioned but in that case too not
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charged. bill: that is remarkable. are there any u.s. investigators on the ground on this story now in libya? >> reporter: yeah. when we were first there the fbi was dispatched in big numbers. they say their investigation is still open. we know they spent some time, a minimal amount of time on the ground in benghazi. again the case still fully opened but still no answers. there is an fbi presence all the time at the tripoli u.s. embassy. you got to believe that is still standing right now, bill. bill: greg palkot with very little news on how this investigation is going now. greg, thank you for that in london today. martha: still so many questions on that. the president promised there would be a full investigation. of course the families of those four who were killed are still waiting for answers today who carried out that attack on the benghazi consulate. meanwhile we're also learning that secretary of state hillary clinton will indeed testify about the benghazi terror attacks before she leaves office. no date yet on when that
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testimony will occur. we know she was back to work yesterday. congress is in recess until january the 21st. so she may have to technically stay on as secretary of state for another week or so after the president's inauguration in order to do this testimony. senator john kerry of course has been nominated as her replacement. all right. we are just getting word of a tragic accident. five americans are among the dead in a horrific helicopter crash that has happened in peru. authorities say that the chopper went down and exploded minutes after takeoff. seven people were onboard. only three bodies have been recovered. according to the reports they were all employees of a canadian-based oil exploration firm that con straits their work in latin america. no word yet on what caused this awful chopper crash. bill: it is. martha: just days after raising taxes on more than 77% of americans democrats say that they want even more
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"money", a move that republicans say is just plain nuts. >> we got to stop the madness. this is the 18-year-old kid on a credit card and max out the credit card. instead of cutting it up putting them on a budget, barack obama says give us a new credit card, oh by the way, harry reid, you don't have to pass a budget this three years. this is crazy. martha: you don't hear too much about it. who will end up paying? congressman jordan joins us next. bill: will be another great fight. look at this too, what are the little dots at bottom of the screen stretching on the horizon? what does this have to do with superstorm sandy? we'll tell you. martha: new concerns whether president obama's pick for defense secretary might signal a return to a troubling time in u.s. history. we're going to talk about that. bill and i will be right after . [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]
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martha: well back in court more than one year after the most high-profile murder trial in recent history. casey anthony acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old little girl, kaley, back in 2011. her lawyers plan to appeal lying to the authorities. remember she said her daughter had been kidnapped by a baby-sitter named zenida? remember that story? it took up a lot of time and energy for that investigation. all of that drew widespread media attention. found eventually not too far from the family's home in the woods. awful story. back in court today. bill: now to your money. democrats say they want to raise as much as a trillion dollars in new revenue which means higher taxes. republican congressman jim jordan out of ohio is with me now. good morning to you back home in dayton, ohio.
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a trillion dollars through new revenues. apparently the strategy to do it through tax reform. you're shaking your head already. >> yeah. i mean look, the democrats always reminds me of lucy promising charlie brown she will hold the football this time. she never does. democrats always promise. give us some more of your money and we'll promise we get to the real spending problem later which they never do. taxes always fuel additional spending. never get to the spending cuts they promised. last thing we want to do is increase the tax burden on american families and job creators at a time we want our economy to grow. that is not conducive to growth. will not solve the problem. let's address the problem which is spending. that is where republicans will focus in this upcoming debt debate. bill: republicans argued for some time we have to get tax reform, make the system more fair and you bring in more revenue. is that not what democrats are saying? >> no, no. they're doing tax reform that increases overall tax burden. if we do tax reform that is
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revenue neutral or actually lowers rates and lowers the overall burden, tax reform that is conducive to economic growth we're all for it. what democrats want. they just got a tax increase last week and they didn't cut any spending in that deal. now they want additional taxes and they won't cut any spending, in fact the president said, don't even debate the debt ceiling. just give me more borrowing authority. let me have more revenue so i can continue to spend. that will not solve the problem. we have $16 trillion debt. we will have to cut spending. bill: are you in agreement with mitch mcconnell this weekend when he said taxes are off the table? we resolved this issue. we have, sorry, we don't have this problem because we tax too little. we have it because we spend way too much. >> no. he is exactly -- remember the last debt ceiling agreement 16 months ago. two days after the law passed we got downgraded on our credit rating. a week after the bill had passed the market dropped
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1323 points. the super-committee which was supposed to identify spending reductions fell apart like many of us thought it would and the scheduled cuts in the last agreement which were supposed to take place were just suspended and postponed five days ago in the fiscal cliff agreement. now it is time to raise the debt ceiling again and we have yet to cut one dime from the last agreement. spending is the problem we have to address that problem. bill: now democrats have shown their hand a little bit where they are on this issue for the next round, the next debate. where are republicans when it comes to spending? >> well, we have laid out several plans. we have done a budget in the house that actually gets to balance. the senate hasn't even done a budget in three years. one of the things i think we should require, okay, senate, before we increase the borrowing authority of this country why don't you actually put together a plan? think about this. i have said this before. think 18-year-old maxes out credit card. first thing you do cut up the credit card and put them on a budget.
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what this president said no, give me a new credit card. we don't want to do a budget. harry reid has it done one in three years. do a budget and we'll give you a menu of spending reductions you can put in place. you choose, mr. president. some are ones that you suggested. some came from simpson-bowles commission. you tell us where you think you can cut spending but we're not going to give you more borrowing authority so you can continue to spend. we'll have to have a solution, not a deal. solve this problem by reducing spending. bill: do you think that you can get this solution with this white house, with this president and democrats this in the senate? >> i think you can. you will see republicans in this new congress united saying look, time to stop the deals. deals always benefit washington. it is interesting, seven of the wealthiest 10 counties in the country are in the washington, d.c. area. when they put these deals together it benefits folks around the nation's capitol. it hurts taxpayers and small
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business owners. time to forget the deal. work a solution. put this country on a path that is actually fiscally sustainable where we don't have a debt crisis in the near future. bill: jim dord dan, thank you. republican congressman out of ohio. we'll see. buckle up. it will be interesting month and a half and beyond. thank you for your time today to dayton. >> thank you. bill: martha, what is next. martha: i don't know if you heard there was a big football game last night, bill? there was a huge championship game between notre dame and alabama but a lot were talking about this girl. the game was not that great actually. it was a landslide. miss alabama in the stands ended up stealing the show. we'll talk to our good buddy brian kilmeade about that. bill: there was this. check it out. [shouting] that was supposed to be a honeymoon, martha. crash landing caught on tape. a marriage off to a bumpy ride. the must-see video.
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the latest who else was on board. martha: why can't people get married in a church. >> i was worried we hit the fence, if the fence doesn't stop us we're going down this hill. >> i got enough jesuses in to protect seven generations. progress-oh! -oh! -oh! oh! oh! ♪ wh do you know? oh! ♪ bacon? -oh! -oh! oh! [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying "progress-oh!" share your story for a chance to win a progress-oh! makeover in hollywood. go to facebook.com/progresso to enter. woman: we're helping joplin, missouri, come back from a devastating tornado. man: and now we're helping the t recover from hurricane sandy. we're a leading global insurance company, based right here in america.
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bill: roll tide and they did all over south bend. alabama had no problem with notre dame to win college football's national championship and arguably the most anticipated game we have heard about in some time. alabama shiftout number one notre dame 42-14. alabama's second straight national tirlt, three in the last four years. nick saban is rolling down there.
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notre dame did not score until late in the third quarter. irish started season unranked but finished 12-1 but last night was a huge disappointment the way that turned out. martha: they have a feel good about a good season they ad overall. quarterback a.j. mccarron's girlfriend got her own moment. they got a shot of her in the stands. she is lovely. commentator brent must berger could not help using that opportunity to give advice to young aspiring football players out there. here it is. >> you see that lovely lady there. she does go to auburn. don't want to admit that. she is miss alabama. that is a.j. mccarron's girlfriend. right there on the right is dee dee bonner. that is aj's mom. you quarterbacks you get all the good-looking woman. what a beautiful woman. >> wow!. >> a.j. is doing some things right. >> if you're a youngster in alabama, start getting the football out and throw it
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around the backyard with pops. martha: get out there and start throwing that football around. bill: classic line. got a lot of attention too. perhaps for all the wrong reasons. martha: too much airtime. they just start going off. bring in brian kilmeade, host of, on air right now with kilmeade and friends. he is fox and friends as well. three of us have a great time on the radio. we thought you would bring a little bit that magic here to "america's newsroom." good morning to our buddy, brian. how are you? >> i'm writing this down. i did not know attractive national championship quarterbacks get attractive girlfriends. i had no idea. bill: start throwing the ball at age three. >> i was kicking it. what was i thinking. martha: gisele bundchen, quarter backs in general get all the pretty ladies. what do you think of him going off like that, brian? >> i thought it was fascinating. brent mustberger is best in the business. when he gets distracted in
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national championship game which has tens of millions people around the globe is pretty stunning. she is stunning. by end of the game had more twitter followers. it was 300. by end of the games had thousands more than a.j. who went 20-28 for 264 yards for his second consecutive national championship at legendary university like alabama. people like lebron james were following miss alabama. a.j. doesn't seem to be the jealous type but was a little bit surprised to find out his girlfriend was a bigger celebrity after the game. bill: that is what happens when the game is a blowout. nothing else to talk about. i tell you where this game was lost, brian? >> yes. bill: when two teams coming out of the tunnel, espn had cameras underneath the stadium. both teams came out of the same tunnel. notre dame emerged first. notre dame had to stop. alabama had 1,000 guys running past notre dame. they were twice their size. i thought this thing was
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over. martha: they were standing there with their gold helmets and i thought, oh, my god. >> first two drives they scored. 35 unanswered points. martha, does bill do this every day, have a theory on everything? martha: oh my gosh, yes. >> they were intimidated in the tunnel? bill: the game was over before they took the field. martha: can i tell you what his other theory was? that rg3 was playing too hard at the beginning of season and he would never last. you said that, bill hemmer. bill: yes i did. >> you were 100% right. that is the other big story. bill: often have several theories on the same story. you come back a bit later, and i will share those with you. >> that will be fine. rg3 is flying down to pensacola to see how many tears he has in his knee and if he will ever be the same. bill: that is remarkable. see ya, brian. martha: have a great show. bill: kilmeade is always good for a little fun. martha: i always look forward to that.
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everybody should look forward to that, tomorrow and wednesday. we start around 11:20 eastern time. good stuff. bill: brian is a big mustberger fan. now you can be too. martha: you can too. bill: as we saw on national tv. chuck hagel is nominee to be the next secretary of the defense. brit hume says this is the return of the vietnam syndrome. we'll explain what this is all about. also there is this coming up. roll it. martha: this is a simmering story right now. protests have erupted over a high school rape case that involves two football players. why they're now are reports that witnesses are being threatened to stay silent as the small town remains very divided. >> she was at the student's house where he was drinking and she was there drinking as well. but he didn't they that and he had never met her. >> i really want to see more people charged as maybe
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accomplices, you know, a better handling of it bboth thee police and the community itself. ÷÷
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martha: new questions this morning about whether president obama's defense secretary pick is signaling a return to a troubling time in u.s. history. chuck hagel was a very outspoken critic of the iraq war during his time as senator. while he did vote in support of the war, our brit human
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says mr. hagel's opinions took a different tune. >> and as been amply noted when president bush ordered a troop surge to alleviate the situation, hagel called it is the biggest foreign policy blunder since vietnam. it did not fail. this is a record to be proud of? after vietnam this country was gripped with a reluctance to use military force and a sense that u.s. military power what was a big problem what was wrong with the world. it was known as vietnam syndrome. the first president bush thought he banish in the it with the success of the first gulf war. with president obama reelected, u.s. out of iraq, soon to be out of afghanistan and chuck hagel chosen for defense, that syndrome seems to be back again. martha: that was last night on session report from brit hume. let's get some reaction to that this morning. we have a great pan fell to talk about this, bob beckel,
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co-host of the "the five." gretchen hamel, republican conference spokeswoman and captain chuck nash. former u.s. navy veteran. let me get your reaction what brit hume said last night. >> he captured the overall war-weariness and reluctance in the american population that happened after vietnam. people will recall. after vietnam we negotiated our way out of there saying that all wars must end with a political solution and instead of the actual defeat of the enemy on the battlefield. we negotiated our way out with the proviso if the north vietnamese did not honor that commitment we would go back in. that was clearly not the intent. when the north vietnamese did go back and we did not honor that, south vietnam fell. boat people, cambodia, the
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whole thing happened. i think we have to be careful looking at the previous record and execution of policy going forward because we've telegraphed too much already. you could make the case that we're setting ourselves up and arguing from a position of weakness. martha: you know, bob, it is interesting, i feel in many ways this discussion about hagel has gotten mired in comments he made here and there but when you really boil it down, the big picture discussion that needs to come forward i think about this is whether or not chuck hagel is somebody who believes that iran pose as serious threat to the security and the stability of the world and what needs to be done about that. and whether al qaeda is shrinking or is rising in the middle east. those are the two central questions most people would want to know from this contender for defense department head. >> first of all, let me say, here was a guy had two purple hearts. was a vietnam veteran with a
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background. he is exactly right. vietnam was started on a lie, the gulf of tonkin resolution. it was disaster. it cost us 50,000 american lives on the pretense dominos would fall after vietnam. iraq, tell you what iraq did, made iran very thing worried about, made iran a powerhouse. before that we didn't have iran as strong as they are now. the other thing, i noticed, jump out in front of this one i understand getting criticized by a lot of jewish groups because he said jewish lobby. well there is a jewish lobby if anybody hasn't noticed. i've been up with them many times when i was in the white house. i don't get all this criticism. the idea of being careful about projecting united states military power is exactly right. how long do we want to do this? are we going to police the world? martha: gretchen, what do you think? >> well, you know he has earned the right, war veteran the right to be weary a soft approach isn't always the right approach and sometimes sanctions and force are needed. i think right now he has taken some controversial
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positions on different issues and america's role in the world. these arethings that need to be debated. this is one of the top positions in the administration, arguably the most important and these questions need to be answered. we need to know where he stand on this and need to make sure we have someone who, secretary of defense will do the most to protect this nation and where we're heading. martha: yeah. it is interesting, captain nash, if you have john kerry also a vietnam veteran and chuck hagel as the head of defense, that to me represents a team. you know, you have got two people, long on the washington stage, both very respected vietnam veterans but who may have, you know, a more sort of isolationist view in some ways of the world certainly than the previous administration did in terms of our involvement in iraq and afghanistan, both things in hindsight both men have said were a mistake? >> well, i think that's right, martha. and i think the president is picking a man for state and
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is going to nominate mr. hagel for the same reason. i think that he believes that they will carry out his policy effectively and i think that policy is a recognition of a war-weariness and a willingness to withdraw from the international stage to a large degree and to build down defense because the cuts that are coming overall to our programs, defense is going to take a hit. it is the largest part of our digs crest nary spending. martha: bob, that raise as huge question. what happens in john kerry, chuck hagel, president obama, if their vision in terms of defense is to, you know, sort of spend more time at home on domestic affairs? not be embroiled in the middle east? not necessarily use force or to back force in any way against iran? where does that leave us and does that concern you, bob. >> concerns me not one bit. anybody who would be secretary of defense and secretary of state thought vietnam was a good idea as
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far as i'm concerned that would eliminate them --. martha: i'm talking about iraq. iraq and afghanistan. vietnam, with all due respect and understanding, of that very difficult period in our history we live in very different world. the threats are very different now. >> that's exactly right. one of the iran has gotten as strong as it has gotten, we take their major opponent iraq away from them when we invaded iraq. what we've done is made iran a very strong power otherwise wouldn't have been. martha: chuck nash, do you agree with that. >> i think taking iraq away did bolster iran's position in the community but the reason why iraq was taken down is because they violated multiple agreements from the cease-fire. this gets back, are we going to defeat our enemies on the battlefield or will we try to negotiate ourselves out of a position? >> you think we defeated them on battlefield? >> that's why we went in because the u.n. was toothless and that's why we had, somebody had to do it
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and it fell to us. >> captain --. martha: iran in similar way, bob? go ahead. >> are you suggesting captain we defeated enemy in iraq or defeated eni in afghanistan? people in afghanistan people we train turnbull let's and kill our own soldiers. in iraq they have active military operating out of iran in iraq. where have we defeated anybody? >> we do now. after the surge things were looking a lot brighter to the point that it fell out of the mainstream media completely and nobody was talking about iraq anymore because it was a success. now we've pulled out of there -- >> it was a success? >> it was. the surge actually completed that action. there was a stable government there. since that time, bob, i will take your point. since that time the iranians have so infested that place that now the ma lackey government is a joke. >> exactly right. martha: some feel that may be due to lack of support here at home for -- >> we spent a trillion dollars. >> or the way we left.
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>> we spent a trillion dollars. what do you need? martha: all right. gentlemen, obviously a very important discussion and one we're going to continue to have. my thanks to all of you, gretchen hamel, bob beckel, captain nash. thanks to you all. bill: strong feelings there, for good reason. check of the markets right now, we're trading off of it, 21, 22 points, the lower side. investors reacting to the start of earnings season, oh joy. there are concerns on earnings. earnings move the market, whether it is up or down. we're in that season now. we'll see whether the economy is as strong as some hope. the movie massacre suspect, james holmes is back in court today after police officers shared heartbreaking accounts of trying to save lives on that terrible night. we'll have a live report from the courthouse on that as a follow-up today. martha: this story is not going away. a rape case in a small ohio town, potential witnesses now say they have become the target of threats in their town. >> we were brought in to help in this investigation.
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bill: this has gotten heated. new fallout in a rape case rocking a small town in ohio. attorneys for the players say the potential witnesses have been threatened and pressured not to testify and they want the trial moved and closed to the public. this did public interest grows following the online circulation of a video that shows a young man joking about the accuser after the alleged attack took place last august. here's the state's attorney general mike dewine talking about the video. >> first of all that video is just disgusting. i think think what's really sad, all rape cases are sad or horrible but what the victim has to go through, not only had to go through the incident, that tragedy
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but now she and her family continue to be victimized frankly by the social media that is out there, and such things as that, just horrible, despicable, 12-minute comments by this man. [shouting] bill: that is video from over the weekend where protesters converged on the town claiming the county sheriff is protecting the football team and more people should be charged. the sheriff says that is not the case. tamara holder, fox news legal analyst, brian claypool, criminal defense attorney. good morning to both of you. i spoke to the sheriff yesterday afternoon. i talked to the police chief earlier today. before we fet to the latest with them, tamara, the allegations that there is a cover-up here. is there evidence of that, though? >> no, absolutely not. this is actually a case where the two boys were taken into custody. they were 16 years old.
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they were juf nice. they were taken into custody within a matter of days. there was a full-fledged investigation which also involved not only the local authorities but the state authorities. so for there to be any allegation of a cover-up, i think is wrong. and what i also think is wrong state's attorney to come out to make a comment the video is disgusting and say it is only disgusting for the victim. there are two men here facing a trial, not in the court of public opinion but behind closed doors here. bill: serious, serious charges in february. now the sheriff said he was satisfied with the investigation. he told me is happy with the work they have done so far. the police chief this morning says he did his last media interview on sat day. he will not talk again. the case has been turned over the man you heard from, mike dewine, the attorney general in ohio. 58 people have been interviewed. if anyone else is charged that is up to the ag, mike dewine. brian, is there a cover-up here and if so, where is the
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evidence? >> i don't think there is a cover-up. i think what is going on in steubenville, almost like a three-ring circus. ringling brothers has real competition down in sub ben vil. look what you had. a judge recused himself. they're bringing another judge from cincinnati to make sure there is no bias in this case. you've got witnesses that are being allegedly intimidated. you have a video that has been released on youtube that could possibly poison the public. but the bottom line here, bill, you have a judge who is going to hear this case. this does not involve a jury. so any attempt here to say that, that there is unfairness and bias i think is going to be flushed out and vetted by this judge. i think what the lawyers for the accused need to do here is they need to make sure that any witnesses who are being intimidated or threatened receive protection. there should be individuals --. bill: some people said they have been threatened
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already. because of that, they're cautious and apprehensive to take the stand. the sheriff says outside groups are defaming innocent people in his town, trying to draw attention to the wrong citizens in that town. tamara, what you have here, you have social media helping to drive an investigation. and when was the was last time we've seen something like that? >> welcome to the age of social media. this is where a judge as brian mentioned, he brings up the judge will hear the case but the judge has control over the case from the moment he gets the case until there is a verdict. and what he or his ruling. so what he needs to do is say, if there are any witnesses who are, any witnesses who are intimidated we're going to charge them and we'll throw them in jail. if there is anybody that is posting anything online, bullying, threatening, we'll investigate you. he needs to take control of this three-ring circus and make sure there is fairness for everybody, for all sides in this case.
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bill: right. trial is february 13th. brian i want to give you the last word because from what i understand there is no further action planned as of now, which means the trial happens in mid-february and you have these two defendants, both age 16. >> well, right, bill, i think, even a bigger issue here that nobody is talking about, which i hope your audience is aware of, where are the parents in all of this too? i mean you've got all these minors, these 16-year-old kids, they're inebriated in a private home and a girl is allegedly raped? at some point this case in steubenville will yield a discussion what is the responsibility and liability of parents when crimes are committed at their home. bill: these are allegations and no one has been found guilty yet. brian claypool, attorney out of l.a. tamara holder here in new york. thanks to both of you. 11 before the hour look at this. a small airport is turned
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into a crowded parking lot. why are thousands of abandoned cars parked bumper-to-bumper on a runway? bill: good question. what a sight there. a wedding ceremony that took a frightening turn. ceremony? [ woman ] if you have the audacity to believe your financial advisor should focus on your long-term goals, not their short-term agenda. [ male announcer ] join the nearly 7 million investors who think like you do. face time and think time make a difference. at edward jones, it's how we make sense of investing.
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bill: well they were hoping to take their love to new heights. certainly were. a hot-air ballon wedding, how about that? this is how it wound up. [shouting] i said i do! now it is okay. i said i do! 14 people in the basket t came down hard near san diego. the balloon began deflating after it was caught by a
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gust of wind. the pilot aimed for a yard and the basket bounced around before it stopped. that is not cool. medics took one person to the hospital complaining of back pain. that is remarkable. just one person? martha: can't people just get married in a church? when did weddings become can you top this game? bill: that is novel. they still had the party by the way. get back to you on the honeymoon. martha: now this. superstorm sandy damaging and destroying tens of thousands of cars. we talked about this right. boats, cars all the stuff left in the wake of this form. now a new york airport runway has become a massive parking lot. this automobile graveyard is generating millions of dollars though in revenue and some controversy as well. rick leventhal is live in river head, long island, today. rick, looks like no place to land a plane there. >> reporter: that's right, martha. this executive airpark is closed for the winter. it is owned by the town of river head, way out east on new york's long island and river head anythinged out a way to make money off all of
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this space, renting taxiways and runways to insurance auto auctions corporation which has filled this airport with thousands and thousands of vehicles damaged during hurricane sandy. the two runways, 7,000 and 10,000 feet long are nearly full of cars and trucks. some new, some more than 10 years ago. vehicles are auctioned online every day. they have a be recyclers, auction nears and disman letters. they have to be auctioned off by the state. they are paying $32 a month for every acre of space. for a total of $2.7 million. there were 230,000 cars damaged or destroyed during hurricane sandy. 150,000 are total losses. 80,000 cars can still be fixed up and driven again, martha. martha: pretty resourceful. you could look at it that way. some claim the cars are actually hurting the environment. >> reporter: environmentalists say this
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airport sits on top of an aquifer that supplies the town and the rest of long island with its drinking water. presumably what is above-ground affects what is below ground. the water comes below ground. if vehicles are sitting above it they could be leaking things like oil or gas and they are concerned it will taint what comes out of the taps. >> road runnoff is the third largest contributor to ground pollution on long island. these people have gone to the center of the island's most pristine drinking water supply and put some 35,000 wrecked vehicles. a truly bad idea. >> reporter: well the town says there are 15,000, not 35 thousand cars. they're parked on pavement. they're all inspected every day and they will all be gone in three to six months, martha. martha: interesting story. thanks so much, rick. bill: now to a murder mystery after a lottery winner is found dead right after winning the jackpot. what happened there?
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martha: that is a strange story. the gun control fight is heating up while consumers what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally.
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martha: fox news alert. a new report has just come out on planned parenthood, the woman's healthcare and aeu borings provider received mourn half a billion dollars in taxpayer money last year. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. this report that crossed a short time ago that is planned parenthood received $542 million in government funding and subsidies at the same time their abortion services increased while their cancer screening and prevention services apparently dropped. martha: that has got even a lot of attention this morning. i'm joined by jonah goldberg editor at large of the national review and a fox news contributor. good morning. what is your take on this? put it in perspective for us. >> i think this is one of those things that is going to put planned parenthood back in the crosshairs of washington again
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at one point soon. mitt romney had one of the great lines from an otherwise not so great campaign, i said i'm not going to spend money tph-pb anything that on anything i don't think i should borrowing from china. we are buying big chunks from china to pay for abortion. whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, the idea of planned parenthood is anything other than an abortion chain is really misleading. the outfit basically is an abortion provider and they use these other things about women's health and mammograms and all the rest as a cover toe essentially be an abortion provider and the federal government should not be in the business to pay for that. martha: they take irooh with that. they say they provide
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mammograms, and free services for people who can't afford them. >> they don't do any mammograms at all. they say only 3% of their services are abortion. 40% of their nongovernment revenues are from abortion. and what they do is they give you a handful of birth control, they give you six-packs of birth control and give you an abortion, so one 7th of what they do is abortion. it's a lot of statistical numbers playing to hide the fact -- the government spends billions upon billions of dollars on women's health through medicaid and other government programs. planned parenthood raises money to be an abortion provider. martha: there was a quote from them that said it was a tough year for us we faced a lot of challenges, but it was sort of a victorious note. we've come through it very strong. it's attested to the fact that they've got even a ton of money
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from the u.s. government and taxpayers. >> and they ended over 400,000 pregnancies, which is basically the population of cleveland. and taxpayers paid for large chunks of it. and that is something that it seems to me perfectly legitimate to be in the playing field. diane black will reintroduce the spence bill which was aimed at defunding planned parenhood. martha: i mean in the current environment what do you think about where this goes from here? i don't think this particular story is going to get a lot of play in a lot of places. >> no, it's not. it's one of these sort of sleeper things where right now, given where the debt ceiling is and all the rest and the confirmation battles are coming down the pike we won't see this as a front and center issue right now but i would expect that there are going to be republicans in the house and some in the senate that will
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push for another effort to defund planned parenthood. martha: we may hear about it in the context of the fiscal fight, a lot of people are pushing for conservatives to be much more specific as far as listing the places where they do think money could be cut from the programs and they haven't been specific enough. perhaps it will take shape in that form. we will see. thank you so much. >> great to be here stphaofplt we are talkin. bill: new gun legislation. former congresswoman gabrielle giffords announcing a new push to stop gun violence. it comes two years to the day after she was shot in the head during a shooting rampage in tucson, arizona. she is waoeu waoeug an editorial for "usa today" and is set to talk to diane wha sawyer later today.
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weapons are flying off the shelves and some americans are worried that their right to bear arms could be taken away. david lee miller is here with the story. >> reporter: incredibly it was two years ago today that congresswoman gabrielle giffords was shot in the head in a shooting that killed six people during a meeting with constituents. giffords and her husband are forming a group called americans for responsible solutions to halt gun violence. the couple says since the rampage that nearly claimed their lives there have been eleven mass shootings in the united statements the couple visited newtown, connecticut where 20 school kids and adults were gunned down at the sandy hook elementary school. they said we don't want to take way your guns any more than we want to give up the two guns we have locked in a safe at home. we want responsible changes in our law.
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they specifically want a change in the possession of guns by criminals. they want to line up behind leaders who in their words will do what is right. bill: we'll wait for more headlines on that beyond what gabrielle giffords and her husband are doing what other efforts are underway with regard to what we all experienced in newtown. >> reporter: let me tell but one of the most recent developments not far from manhatten and staten island this is a call to hire retired armed new york cops to guard schools. the head of the school system in new york city rejects whatsoever armed guards. what that means for now is this idea is not going to be implemented. other communities across the country, they are putting armed guards in school, among them tempe, arizona, volunteer
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possible sees are on patrol. in new jersey armed guards are in one township, they monitor all visitors when they arrive or depart i from the schools. the september says this program is temporary, according to the national center for education statistics even before sandy hook, one-third of all the u.s. schools had an armed security officer on-duty. as this debate rages so do gun sales. manufacturers say they can't make guns fast enough. they are flying off the shelf, customers are fearful that there will be wide-spread restrictions or possibly some type of a ban and they want to buy a gun while they feel they still can. bill. bill: a lot there, david lee, thank you so much. david lee miller here in new york. one tabgts on gun sales the f.b.i. does not actually track the purchase of a gun but background checks have been on a steady upward trend since the
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year 2000. more than 16.8 million background checks performed for the first 11 months of 2012. that's 2% higher -rpb the previous year's total of 16 and a half million. martha: meanwhile on that same note we are just learning compelling new details about what happened in the mass shooting at the movie theater in aurora, colorado. it is coming out in the preliminary hearing that is going on all this week for shooting suspect james holmes how see pictured here. police officers with heart-break accounts of how they tried desperately to save people's lives in that theater after they arrived at that horrific crime scene. alicia acuna is live in centennial, colorado. where do they begin this hearing today? >> reporter: today attorneys will finish the questioning of aurora police detective todd frederick son. he interviewed a number of injured and survivors after the shooting. he testified yesterday that one
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witness, who was also shot multiple times detailed to him the feeling of the bullets entering that body. that witness the detective said on the stand later lost his leg. another victim described how the suspected gunman james holmes appeared to be targeting people who were attempting to flee the shooting. we heard from another officer that those in the theater on july 20th saeupld holmes walked calmly up and down the aisle emptying his weapons into the packed crowd and yet another victim said before she was hit in the abdomen she remembers teargas canisters flying over her head. all people described on the stand a chaotic and bloody mess. martha. martha: what a scene. so what was james holmes demeanor while he sat there listening to all of this be recounted? >> reporter: well, you know, we do have a producer in the courtroom, and she said that there was almost no response, no visible reaction, no emotion whatsoever. and cameras have not been
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allowed in the courtroom since last july. that was the first court appearance for james holmes, and we haven't been allowed in the courtroom with a camera ever since. family members of victims and survivors themselves are in there. it's been tremendously difficult as you can imagine for them to hear these details. >> he has no emotion, like i said before he's -- i don't know, it's really hard to explain, it's like a row bottom of the i was crying like everybody else. i couldn't keep -- it's really hard. >> reporter: a new district attorney begins overseeing the prosecution's case. he will decide whether to pursue the death penalty in this case. he says he hasn't reached a decision on that yet buy did campaign in support of the death penalty on this issue. martha. martha: and also the revelation that james holmes bought his theater ticket 12 days before he went to that movie theater that
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night shows a lot of premeditation on his part, perhaps. thank you very much. bill: certainly does. some of that testimony yesterday from the police officer saying, are we going to find anything at your apartment? yeah my apartment is booby trapped if you go in there something will blow up. sick, sick mind in aurora. the backlash against chuck hagel has started. bill crystal starting chuck hagel.com. we'll find out why he has a huge problem with the nomination. martha: who should have a license to drive a car. a push to have illegal immigrants to have drivers' licenses is getting a big boost in one state. bill: a desperate search for two boys who fell through thin ice. can they survive this? we president bush to find out. >> a terrible thing to have to deal with situations where there are families that don't know where their children are, or possibly don't know what's happened to them.
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so it's troubling.
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bill: the search resumed a bit earlier today for two missing high school boys who fell through the ice in a lake in northern new jersey. people living nearby said they heard screams last night, screams for help around 6:00 in the evening. ice rescue teams and a state police helicopter were called in to help with that search in new jersey. >> so far we've been unable to find anyone at this time. we are releasing some of the firefighters, but we continue to search as conditions allow throughout the night, and we will be back in the morning. bill: when they arrived in the morning the sun was up, it's a clear day here, in fact the temperatures are a lot higher too than they have been in the area. the father of one of the missing boys says the kids were riding their bikes across the lake when the ice cracked beneath them. martha: let's head back down to washington now. a group of conservatives are
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challenging chuck hagel's nomination has defense secretary with a new media campaign. it targets the former senator with a web saoeult tha website that highlights his quote extreme foreign policy opinions. also slamming hagel's views on iran in a new ad. here is a piece of that. >> president obama says all options are on the table for preventing a nuclear iran. hagel says military action is not a viable, feasible, responsible option. president obama, for secretary of defense chuck hagel is not a responsible option. >> bill crystal is author of that group and a political analyst. so, why the very strong effort on your part with there? >> well, i don't think and a lot of other people don't think that chuck hagel is the right man to be defense secretary. he served the country well in war, i'd have no objection if the president wanted to make him
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ambassador to luxembourg or head of veteran affairs or other positions. secretary of defense is an awfully important position and his votes and quotes over the years have put him outside of the mainstream. it's not a personal attacks his friends are saying, oh there is a smear campaign against chuck hagel, it's the furthest thing from the true. i've had a cordial and polite kind of relationship with him. we are not close but whaoefee never had a cross word. it's about the votes he's cast against sanctions for iran. things he's said and votes he's cast on is real and other matters that makes me think he would be a bad secretary of defense. martha: i know the jewish lobby quote, i spoke about it yesterday, was something that was disturbing to a lot of people. i had bob beckel on in a panel earlier and he says that he believes that that is not a continue verse verse shall statement, that there is a pro-israel lobby and it
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shouldn't be a problem to say that, what do you think. >> if you go listen to the audio and you can listen to it at chuck hagel.com, this is the audio he said to aaron david miller. he interviewed him for the book he was writing. chuck hagel said i'm going to say something that most senators won't say there is a powerful jewish hobby that intimidates members of congress. he was boosting that he was saying something that most won't say. he boasts about taking positions on israel and iran and other issues out of the mainstream. a lot of his defenders were candid defenders before he was nominated. the case for chuck hagel is he is out of the mainstream. now that he's been nominated there is a big amount to say, oh, no, a regular senator, nothing controversial there. hagel himself said in an interview with one of the nebraska papers that he had been a total and unequivocal supporter of israel. hagel spent years boost boasting
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that he wasn't like the senators that were unequivocal supporters of israel. there ace conversion going on now, it's not kred afpblt he shoulcredible. he should be what he is and he would not be a good secretary of defense. >> chuck knows that war is not a distraction. he understands that sending young americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that is something we only do when it's absolutely necessary. my frame of reference, he has said, is geared towards the guy at the bottom who is doing the fighting, and the dying. martha: what is your reaction to that, bill? >> i think that's the right frame of reference. i trust that that was bob gates' frame of reference and leon panetta's frame of reference, president obama's two previous defense secretaries.
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people like me and i personally had no objection to them. i don't have an objection to john kerry much as i disagree with them on things he's a mainstream liberal democrat that president obama is putting in his cabinet. what president obama and chuck hagel always supporters are doing is suing the record that are different from most of the obama supporters. if he wanted to make other members of the armed services committee secretary of defense if he wanted to take a republican like olympia snowe nobody would have much to say about that. he is entitled to have his own cabinet. chuck hagel has said things and cast votes that are out of the mainstream and would send a very bad signal to our enemy and friends. i'm prelt tee convinced frankly that he won't be the right person to be secretary of defense. martha: one last yes based on a story on politico that sort of is about you and your effort to create a reformist organization for the g.o.p., to kind of
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recraft your party, and the vision for it going forward. what do you think about that? is that true? >> someone mentioned to the politico reporter that i was thinking of doing that. and he reported, i said yeah i'm thinking of it. there are plenty of organization tph-gs down, maybe there is room for another small one. they try to articulate a forward looking, pop lis conservative agenda that gets us away from somewhat stale positions that the party has tpaeupbl inch in in the last ten, 15 years. the response i've got even in the last day, there are a awful lot of republicans and conservatives out there that would like fresh thinking and internal debates on some of those issues. i think i'll try to do something along those lines. martha: we've got to go. thank you very much. bill: he assassinated president kennedy. part of his past is going to be distried forever. what are these giraffes doing? you're about to find out.
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being reduced to rubble. the notorious occupant of this 1920s apartment complex is in the history books for all the wrong reasons. lee harvey os warld's former home is set to be torn down and the owner says that despite his infamy his stuff is drawing all kinds of interest. >> we are trying to salvage everything, because it's historical. people have purchased items, people have purchased all the wood, all the brick. martha: interesting, right? os walled was arrested on november 22nd, 1963 for assassinating president john f. kennedy in dallas. he was shot and killed while in custody by jack ruby a couple of days later. bill: state of illinois expected
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to become the third state in the country to okay drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. the measure quickly moving through the state house and despite some serious concerns from critics this is likely to become law. steve brown is in chicago on this. how close is it to happening, steve? >> well, the illinois house of representatives will be getting together today at 12 eastern time and it is expected that they will take up this legislation that passed throughout committee yesterday, it already passed through the state seven arbgts the legislation that would allow undocumented residents of the state of illinois to get drivers lancess i licenses to pass. it does have by partisan support. one democrat who voted against the mess in your the state senate says republicans are on board with this legislation because they have to be. >> if they are going to remain relevant, that they need to appeal to this growing population, so i think that there was no question in fact
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that that's why some of them had to sign to support this. >> there is a broad array of religious groups that is pushing this including the roman catholic dioceses of chicago. bill: there is irony in this. this would involve undocumented aliens essentially identifying themselves, they would be coming forward, right. >> it would, it would. and there is some hesitancy, at least there's been hesitancy suggested that undocumented folks may not want to disclose themselves also. but a large number of advocates for this bill in the hispanic community believe that folks will take advantage of it because it removed the threat of an ordinary traffic stop possibly leading to deportation. >> i think at the state level it's the biggest thing you can do. it's the -- it's what assures you that when you leave your home in the morning to go to work you can come home to your kids in the evening.
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>> there could be as many as 250,000, a quarter million drivers who would be eligible for licenses under this program. they'd have to make appointments with the dmv to get these licenses, and they continue be used as a form of identification, but it would allow them to drive on the roads legally, bill. bill: illinois, third state. we'll watch it. steve brown is live in downtown chicago. martha. martha: a fight over gun control is once again heating up as record numbers of americans flock to buy guns. >> i think everyone is a little scared of everything that is going on in the media and the government right now. it's our right to protect ourselves though. martha: the push for new laws and what gun owners may be in for. bill: also, check it out, the runaway rue he's got some police hopping, check him out. you go, guy. martha: there he goes.
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martha: we've got fox news alert on a very disturbing development this morning in the story of what happened in benghazi in the attack on our consulate there on september 11th. word now that the tunisian government, a judge there has released the only suspect held in the death of four americans, including u.s. ambassador chris stevens. he was released we're told on
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conditions that his lawyer said there was simply not enough evidence. you may remember that the f.b.i. has doing and extensive investigation we've been told and we remember that president obama said that the investigation would not stop until the killers of those four people in benghazi were found. and many people are waiting for an update on that investigation and want to know when indeed that outcome will be achieved. we're going to stay on top of that story. more for you ahead. bill: back to one of our top stories now this is the push for new ledge ration with regard to guns. gabrielle giffords now is that righting a media bullets to push for new laws. the whole thing is send ago record number of people into gun stores looking to buy according to the gun store owners, and manufactures say they can barely keep up with the inch cries in demand. many gun owners say they fear their second amendment rights could be taken away. >> obviously there is a notion of safety, don't want to be a
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victim, you know, last place i want to know is a gun-free zone where the bad guy, you know, can reload. even my daughter walks into a campus and says that makes no sense because the bad guys don't read the law. bill: what about this charlie hurt is a columnist for the washington times. this is the topic dejour. good morning to you. you wonder what the impact of a gabrielle giffords could be in this debate. how do you see it? >> it's interesting, you know, the sort of conventional wisdom around here is that no new good laws are really going to take too much traction largely because you -- in the senate you have democrats from big, rural states where people will take their gun rights very seriously. you know, i guess what remains to be seen is what it is that she and her husband are proposing. you know, if they are talking about doing huge new lists of who is allowed to own a gun and who is not allowed to own a gun, i don't see that going much anywhere. the talk of trying to
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reinstitute the assault weapons ban or so-called assault weapons ban is one of the things that was sort of kneel good legislation that banned certain weapons based on what they looked like not how they functioned or how lethal they are. that was kind of a big nothing that we had for several years there. the other area where a lot of people are sort of gaining some interest is the concept of clearly mentally unstable people getting their hands-on guns. i think everyone is in agreement that that is an area where nobody wants dangerous unstable people to have guns. bill: let me come back to that point. we talked about this the other day about a comprehensive approach. this is what part of gabrielle giffords and her husband rights today. we can't just hope that the last shooting tragedy will prevent the next, achieving for performs to mean matching gun lobbyists
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in their reach and resources. i think that last part is critical. they are almost trying to set up a counter balance to the nra. there is an organization called americans nor responsible solutions that they are launching today and they make the argument that until now the gun lobby's political contributions have not been matched by others, that is about to change, no longer is what they write, is that how you see it? >> clearly that's their strategy, but again it all comes down to the sort of nuts and bolts of it. what is it that they are proposing? when you get into dash tkaerbg, if you want to create a nation hal database of people who are mentally unstable and shouldn't be getting guns, well do you think maybe that there might be some objection? forget the nra, do you think there might be some objection to epg keeping -- the government keeping a list of mentally unstable people? do you think maybe the aclu, or maybe some other group, psychiatric group might have some objection to the federal
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government doing that sort of thing stphao. bill: thing? criminals and the mentally ill can easily purchase guns by aeu sroeug avoid -gsing background checks. >> there are laws who prevent those particular people from buying guns. in those cases why not stiffen the laws or just enforce those laws. there are a lot of laws like that that are on the books that get ignored. in the case of the newtown shooting, adam lanza never should have had access to guns, never should have been taught anything about guns. clearly, he had a history of mental instability. and i don't know why people don't go after -- obviously his mother was among his victims, but, you know, it's a real question to me is, you know, is there anyone else responsible for teaching him how to use these guns, putting him in front
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of video games. bill: with regard to adam lanza this guy knew right from wrong. he heard the police sirens and knew what his crimes would lead to and he killed himself. the nut in aurora, colorado acted like nothing was up when the police approached him. >> clearly that is another case where there was a history of mental instability. bill: you're right. i just want to nail this one pint. you say the smart money in washington says that new gun laws go nowhere? >> it's sort of -- because you have the senate where you have so many of the democrats, you know, all the republicans and so. tkepl rattles who are from big rural states where they take gun rights very seriously, they are right there with taxes and it makes it very difficult to move a lot of this gun legislation. bill: charlie, thank you. charlie hurt. thank you for coming in out of washington. 22 minutes before the hour. martha: a reporter who wrote one of the most critically acclaimed
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books on politics, richard ben kramer was 62 years old. he is best known as the author of the book "what it takes, the way to the white house. it was an extremely detailed account of the 1988 presidential race. he's credited with writing one of the best articles in sports journalism called "what do you think of ted williams now" he died yesterday from complication of lung cancer at john hopkins university medical center. bill: 21 minutes before the hour, a bizarre murder investigation is underway in chicago. a man hits it big in the lottery only to be found dead immediately afterwards. why investigators are planning to exhum his body. martha: talk about whiplash we'll tell you what really happened in this rare video from the animal kingdom. look at that. have you ever seen anything like that? there is more where that came from. unbelievable stuff. we'll show you when we come back. hey, our salads.
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bill: from chicago now, police have a million dollar murder mystery on their hands. this man won a million bucks on a scratch card playing the lottery only to be found dead a day after the check for his winnings was issued? at first the death was said to be from natural causes, but police believe he may have been poison end with a chemical that you would find in fiction. >> more common in fictional literature than in real life. cases do pop up. i've had a cyanide shoe side probably about close to 20 years ago that i wrote up as a case report, but generally cyanide poisonings in the united states are pretty unusual. bill: figure that one out. i died back in july. the man apparent lie tippe aeu
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apparently tipped the clerk where he bought the ticket 11 bucks. calls to his family have not been returned. martha: a new documentary takes an i can journey through africa's wildlife. producers got a chance to bring cameras to the parts ever the continent never filmed before giving as you close look at some of the most spectacular animals in the world. mike g u.n. ton eugs the executive producer of the discoverseven part series. i'm just back from south africa myself. i'm very fired up about these kinds of experiences and seeing these animals up close is an incredible experience g. to have you here. let's take a look at the giraffe. let's play that for him, guys. >> to protect presentatio proceed protect precious territory they will fight.
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giraffe's necks are over six feet long and weigh over 500 pounds. martha: i saw a lot of giraffes on my trip i did not see any of them doing anything like that. what are they doing? >> that's one of the things about this whole series it's showing you things you think you might know about africa, everybody thinks giraffes are gentle creatures, what happens when two men fight over a female. they are very beautiful the females. when two males might, if they are evenly matched then the fights go on and on. on their heads they hav have spikeee horns. they go at each other and eventually try to knock each other down. martha: who won? it's the story between a young male and the old male. the old male has got the tphaoepl ale. female. i don't know if i want to tell you. the old man has a little trick
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up his sleeve. >> good for him. one thing i was struck by in our travels is how similar the family experiences are to our own. you've got a skwroupbg giraffe male in this case and the young male lion dos the same thing, they are marking their territory, right. >> if you watch animals a lot you realize that they are all charges. you have stupid ones, strong ones, smart ones, they are just like us. with those two giraffes each of them had their own little tricks. i tricks. it was like a boxing match. in the very end it was hard to know who would win. the old guy had a few tricks up his sleeve. martha: let's take a look at leopard pictures you have as well. leopards incredible. >> we were very lucky here, it was a family, we were able to follow, this is a young male, he's just to the point where he has to leave his mom. martha: he's a couple of years old, right. >> pretty young. the thing is that as a youngster
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he makes mistake after mistake after mistake. he tries to find food. he tries to go for a wart hog. then he tries for a little other thing. then he finds his mother's stash, what leopards do, when food is hard to come by they stash food up in the tree so that nobody else can get it. he tries to get it as he's walking up the tree his mother sort of booby trapped. he trips on a branch falls to the ground. tries again and its just not his day. martha: where was that shot? >> this is all in the southwest of africa, this is down in the klahari, which is the oldest bit of africa. martha: let's take a look at this frog picture. sometimes the smallest animals also are so fascinating up close. >> we've made sure it's not just the big ones, the small ones too. martha: small fries, right? >> it's another mating story. this man is trying to get the females. what he has to do is he has to
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climb to the top of the trees to call, which he does. when he gets up there he finds that all the other guys have beaten him to it. he has to start fighting. martha: it's like a at a dance an can't get anyone to dance with him. >> you should see how torn he is. that is a big walking over his head. he has a tough journey to get to the top of the tree. when he gets up there he has to fight. these frogs are lining kick boxers. they lift their legs up and thrash each other and try to knock eve other off. in the end he wins and gets his female. then what is really clever is there is no water aopbt groun on the ground so they have to wait until the water arrives. they put their *efgs in eggs in a little envelope made out of a leave and the male glues it. when the rains comes it ao dissolves the glue and the eggs and babies drop into the water and they have a little pond.
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martha: it's a beautiful story, i'm going to cry. that is my husband's sleeve that you see. that's how close we were. we were watching them from afar but he began stalking closer to the vehicle. my friend turned three shades of white. >> we have a nice story, the rhinos, where they are not at all like that. martha: so much fun, thank you. we look forward to seeing it. wonderful stuff. seven part series "africa" debuts january 8th at 10:00pm eastern on the discovery channel. looking forward to it. bill: looks great in h tk-frpblgts looks bettehd. jenna lee standing by, she is going to wrestle jon scott in p 11 minutes. jenna: i wanted to see your travel diary last week, now i want to see martha's, i think
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hers sounds better. all right guys coming up awaiting an update on the so far very gruesome preliminary hearing for the colorado movie massacre. we'll get you an update on that analysis as well with our legal panel along with a few other cases we're watching around the country today. the doc is in on the flu, 18 children have died so far in this country because of the flu this season, a really bad season, news you can use. plus some incredible new pictures of the cars destroyed by hurricane sandy, pictures you haven't seen before that really tell a thousand stories, all that and more on "happening now." bill: we'll seen you then okay. i'm waiting for the mud wrestling. jenna: we know who would win. bill: right you're a tough mudder. breaking news on what is happening in syria. there are new reports the chemical weapons of the bashar al-assad regime are ready and could be launched within hours if the order is given. live details on that when we continue.
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times reporting that syria's stock of chemical weapons is loaded and ready for use if president bashar al-assad gives the order to use them on his own people as that war rages. leland vittert watches it live from our middle east bureau. what is the latest now? >> reporter: though the intelligence came out a couple of weeks ago that the syrians had begun mixing the chemical weapons, that was based on satellite intelligence and signals intelligence, meaning communications intercept. that's when the u.s. went into high gear diplomatically and made it clear to the syrians and the r*ugtss that the use of chemical weapons would be crossing a red line. those chemical weapons have an expiration date. once you mix them it's use them or lose them. we are getting close to the expiration date. ment question is will
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president bashar al-assad use them. the red line remains writ is. right now president sad r-rb, his military is looking at a little stronger show of force. patriot missiles to be banned by u.s. troops and also nato troops have landed in turk key. those missiles are going to go along the turkish-syrian border to be used first to prevent any kind of syrian attack inside of turkey. very easily those missiles could be reprogrammed to begin the enforcement of a no-fly zone over northern syria. that ter certainly something that be done if the red line is crossed, bill. bill: what are the rebels doing, leland? that is the other part of this story in the sense that the rebels seem to be losing whatever momentum they had gained. the talk of chemical weapons really got strong when the rebels were moving on all of the cities controlled by the syrian regime. as of late things have slowed down. they are able to move across aop groun open ground *rb, but when
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they get to the cities the military repulses them back. they are using the air force to pound away at the rebels. bill: thank you, what we believe to be happening inside that illusive country. martha: there is gruesome new evidence in a murder that may have been fueled by jealous rage. the latest from arizona where this woman claims she stabbed her ex-boyfriend almost 30 times, shot him and slit his throat, all in self-defense she says.
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